Field of the Invention
The present invention discloses new antimicrobial compositions to control bacterial diseases and to prevent spoilage of products such as food products.
Description of Related Art
Food-borne diseases are an increasing matter of concern. Recent estimates suggest that about 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses occur annually in the United States alone. 5000 of these cases are reported to result in death.
Microorganisms are the main agents responsible for food spoilage and food poisoning and therefore food preservation procedures are targeted towards them. Food preservation methods currently used by the industry rely either on the inhibition of microbial growth or on microbial inactivation. Examples of procedures for preservation of foods are drying, salting, thermal treatment and fermentation.
Thermal treatment is the most widely used procedure. However, heat can trigger unwanted reactions, leading to undesirable organoleptic and nutritional effects. This limitation together with increasing consumer demand for fresh-like foods has promoted the development of alternative methods for food preservation, among which chemical preservation has been used extensively.
The excessive use of chemical preservatives has resulted in decreasing susceptibility of some microorganisms to these preservatives. Moreover, some of the chemical preservatives are suspect because of their supposed or potential toxicity leading to consumer concern over the possible adverse health effects of these preservatives. As a result thereof, there is an increasing pressure on food manufacturers to completely remove chemical preservatives from their food products and to provide alternatives for preserving food products. The increasing demand for alternatives has opened new dimensions for the use of natural preservatives such as endolysins.
Endolysins are bacteriophage-encoded lytic enzymes that break down the peptidoglycan of the bacterial cell wall during the terminal stage of the bacteriophage reproduction cycle. They have been potential candidate therapeutics for the treatment of bacterial infections of humans and animals and have also been proposed as suitable compounds in the control and detection of microorganisms responsible for food-borne diseases (see Celia et al. (2007), Mayer et al. (2008), and Obeso et al. (2008)).
The use of endolysins however harbours potential risks such as an adverse immune response to either the protein itself or to the release of pro-inflammatory bacterial cell antigens. Next to that, the endolysins may be susceptible for inactivation on or in the food matrix. Moreover, endolysins are expensive to produce and to date have a limited regulatory and consumer acceptance.
Consequently, it can be concluded that there is a severe need for more effective antimicrobial compositions, e.g. antibacterial compositions, for controlling microorganisms responsible for food-borne diseases and preventing spoilage of products, such as food products.